Friday, July 12, 2013

After last month's Superman celebration books, Dark Knight Over Metropolis, Deadshot, and more, DC Comics's October 2013 trade solicitations look a little thin in comparison. Still some good paperbacks and hardcovers to note, however; let's dig in.

I seem to recall hearing about this one somewhere before. Rather gutsy for DC to announce the giant Villains Month omnibus before the event even arrives, but gathering pre-orders now was probably necessary for getting this out by Christmas.

Everything I said last month about pre-ordering applies here, too. For the love of god, pre-order this book. We have been waiting forever for collections of Mike Grell's Green Arrow series, and this is one that seems to me imminently on the chopping block; publication, despite the Arrow TV series, is in no way guaranteed. If you want this book, and if you want to see further editions of this series, pre-order, pre-order, pre-order.

This omnibus was previously scheduled for last year and I remember some folks were disappointed when it was cancelled. This is a little too Elseworlds-y for me, but I imagine some will be glad to see it back on the schedule.

Confirmed once and for all that this is the full nine issues of the 1970s Joker series. Seems to me DC is publishing this one a little late, after the big Joker fever has already passed (it lands a month or two after the Death of the Family collections.

In terms of scope, I'm partial to the Absolute Authority Vol. 2 (my review), but it's hard to argue with this hardcover that collects issues #13-29 without skipping the ones not written by Mark Millar, giving a fuller reading experience overall.

I'm still not a regular All-Star Western reader (catch my review of All-Star Vol. 1 in the Collected Editions Guide to the New 52 ebook), but it's hard to argue with a trade of Jonah Hex vs. Eclipso action.

*Deadpool by Joe Kelly Omnibus--Damn it, DC and Marvel, stop making omnibi that I actually want to get! This collects not only Kelly's original run, but also his more recent guest spots on the character in ASM and other titles, and I like that they're going for completion.

*Just as a general note--October is Marvel's Thor Month in honor of the new film, with all the comics getting bonus Thor-related covers and a whole slew of Thor-related trades. I do wish they'd use this opportunity to reissue a TPB of "Worldengine".

*Journey Into Mystery: Seeds of Destruction--I can't believe this is getting cancelled! Thankfully Immonen and Schiti both have various books lined up, and this was probably inevitable, but Sif's journey has been one of my favorite books.

*X-Men Vol. 1: Primer TPB--I'm stunned that this isn't getting released as a hardcover, but on the other hand, the title got delayed, so this ends up as a four-issue trade. Throwing in Jubilee's origin is a decent extra... although a lot of comic shops are already clearancing "Fall of the Mutants".

*Thanos: Redemption TPB--Thor might get a month, but Thanos more or less gets an entire year. It's more Starlin and Lim (plus Keith Giffen)--can't really go wrong with that.

Image: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46552

IDW: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46588

Dark Horse: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46573

Nothing's really interesting to me from the other publishers... which is good, because between Power Rangers Figuarts, Masterpiece Soundwave, Reissue Predaking, Generations Metroplex and all sorts of GI Joes hitting, I'm in for some toy-heavy months.

The completist in me really appreciates the way Marvel's collected editions department keeps filling gaps between collections. The upcoming X-Men: A Skinning of Souls TPB, for instance, will collect all eight issues of Nicieza's X-Men run that were skipped between the X-Cutioner's Song and Fatal Attractions OHCs.

So the original description for Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3: Willpower HC (which is on Amazon) lists the contents as 13-20 and the annual. But DC's October solicitations lists the contents as 15-20 and the annual. I hope that's a typo. If not, 13 and 14 will only be in the Rise of the Third Army hardcover and you'll have to double up get all the issues.

Issues 13-14 is already in Volume 2 that just came out. I don't think DC would re-print those issues in volume 3. Most likely 15-20 and the Annual #1, and maybe GL #20 for the conclusion for all other GL based books? Hey, Batman #17 is going to be in all Death of the Family Bat-family books, so DC might be doing something similar.

My bad, I wasn't aware that these issues had already been collected. That was an odd decision, considering they were originally labeled as Rise of the Third Army chapters, and volume 2 could have perfectly ended with issue #0.

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